Rex Ryan Is The Perfect Example Of How The NFL Head Coaching Job Is Changing

After six tumultuous seasons with the New York Jets, Rex Ryan has
been hired to be the next head coach of the Buffalo Bills.

The move is an interesting one for the Bills as Ryan is a
defensive specialist and the team already has one of the best
defenses in the NFL and struggles offensively. But at the same
time, the move highlights what may be an archaic thought in the
NFL: that teams need a traditional head coach at all.

At some point, a team is going to get smart and they will simply
hire a "VP of football operations, offense" and a "VP of football
operations, defense" to coach the respective sides of the ball
and stay out of each other's way.

That team can then hire a Bill Parcells or a Mike Holmgren-type
as the president of football operations to make personnel
decisions, handle the occasional decision that overlaps the
offense and defense, and oversee the entire operations from afar
with little involvement on the field.

We have already seen this implemented at the college level on a
few occasions. Both Joe Paterno at Penn State and Bobby Bowden at
Florida State served more as CEOs of their schools' football
programs and when it came to practice and game day, their
appearances were more as figureheads.

Bobby Bowden was less
hands-on towards the end of his career.Getty Images

The NFL has become so specialized that it is nearly impossible to
ask one coach to be proficient on both the offensive and
defensive side of the ball. Instead we have offensive coaches and
defensive coaches, with one that gets paid more just because he
speaks to the media more often.